New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-03-22
FyYED RESPONSIBILITY.

It has been rumorcd during the last few
DAYS that there are some members OF the AS
sembly who cannot be relied upon to vote for
the High License bill on its final passage, be-
cause they have no public career to look Tor
ward to are about to return to private life
and therefore must be considered irresponsible.
1t has been represented as possible that some of
these men might yield to the venal Emporium
titles of the rum sellers. and consent for large
brides to vote against the bill We must re-
fuse to believe in such perGdy in the absence
of evidence, for to accept the theory is not only
to charge knavery but folly upon the members
concerned. There may indeed be some men
who do not expect to appear again in public
life but assurcdy there are none who do not
expect to live among their fellows and to &C.
cupy social and business relations and to every
one of these the possession OF good name
must be important. The legislator who should
betray the people in matter of such deep
import as the High-License bill, who should by
abandoning his duty proclaim aloud his own
corruptness, would not only suffer the punish
mcnt of political expulsion and Ostracism, but
would be followed wherever he went by his
evil notoriety and would become byword
ana q ScOIHng aHOnS HIS Hoiehpoio anu WIZ
friends of his childhood.
There is no bride large enough to compensate
any man endowed with the slightest sensibllity
the least remnant of conscience. for tho lg-
nominy and shame of such a fate. The man
VINO sells his honor and plays the traitor to his
party and his felOw-countrymcn becomes the
man without country His doom it is to be
cnt off from the community: to be an lshmacl-
lite to feel the finger of universal sccrn and
rcprobation pointed at him wherever he goes
to know that when men put their heads to-
gether as he passes they arc whispering
There goes the man who sold himself to the
rumscllcrs !" Such a man could have little
pleasure in his ill-gottcn money Not coin OF
it hut would scOrch his fingers. not purchase
made with it but would recall freshly the whole
shameful history. as well to others as to him
self. There is no place so remote or OBJ
scure but the tongue Of rumor would carry
ththcr the whole black story. The corrupt
legislator might escape all legal penalties, bu'
he would 90 through life branded. and he conld
never hope to recover the esteem and respect
of his fellows. 1t is not to lie credited that
there arc any members at Albany who contcm
Mate such treason, Or who arc blind enough to
imagine that in pcrpctrating 1T they would
escape responsibility merely because they are
not going to continue in public life.
Their responsibility is fixed. Every one OF
the sixty-fve Republican Assemblymcn who
voted for the Crosby bill on its third reading
must vote for it also upon it's final passage. or
take the consequences. What they arc The
TRIBUNE has pointed out in all seriousness. The
whole State is watching the progress of this
bill at Albany The whole State knows the
names of the men upon whose loyalty ITS final
passage in the Assembly depends. Nothing
can be done in the dark by any one among
them. Nothing in the nature OF shutting Or
evasion can lie attempted with the falntest pos
sibility of decciying the people. We say this
far less because there is reason to entertain
doubts as to the moral stamina Of members than
because we know the audacity and desperation
of the rumscllcrs who arc lobbying to deicat
the bill 1t is notorious that they have but
one recourse and that is to corruption. IL Is
that they have assessed themselves
heavily for that purpose. There is only one
sure way to battle them and that is to make 1t
impossible for any member to Inc bnbcd secret
". If there is sale in the existing clrcum-
stances it will have 10 he an open one. There
can no longer be any conccalment. there can
he no escape from accountability. NO excuse
for voting the wrong way will bc received The
for the final passage of the bill In
the Assembly is fixed. and must he lived up to
on pain of infamy This is the simple truth
of the situation, and The TRIBUNE commcnds
it TO whomsOcvcr it may concern.